


After Dark, You Are Not Alone

by Dawnieserix



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Cuddles, Drowning, Fluff and Angst, Hoo-boy, Hurt/Comfort, Nerriston, Next Summer!AU, Nightmares, Other, Soooo Tags right, This is my first time posting CC writing, Written for a Discord, Yeah it's a new one, author sucks at tags, uh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-18
Updated: 2017-10-18
Packaged: 2019-01-18 21:08:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12396264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dawnieserix/pseuds/Dawnieserix
Summary: Nightmares suck, and Harrison has a lot to be afraid of. Luckily, he has Preston and Nerris looking out for him.





	After Dark, You Are Not Alone

He opened his eyes to darkness. Cold, suffocating, darkness, closing in from everywhere. No matter how he twisted or where he turned, it pressed in on him. In the inky blackness he was blind, weightless, _helpless_. He could feel nothing but the pressing cold, see nothing but the vast blackness that surrounded him from all sides. Only his ears found more than emptiness, and he honestly would have preffered the silence.

“Bring him back!”

“What do you mean you can’t?” 

“He’s possessed Marie, we need to fix this!”

“Have you figured out, _what’s wrong with him_?”

“HE MADE HIS BROTHER DISAPPEAR!”

The memories were like a thousand razors shredding away at his soul, horrible words interspersed with panicked cries. He curled in on himself in the void, wishing for silence but afraid of being alone. He knew the words were deserved, that he didn’t have any reason to be hiding because they only spoke the truth, but it didn’t stop the hurt. He was a freak, a monster, and possibly a killer. He deserved every dagger sharp word tossed his way, and he knew it, so why didn’t he accept it?

“You’re awful Harrison.”

“I don’t want a DEMON like you ANYWHERE NEAR ME!”

He flinched, those words hurting worst of all. Of course, it’d been inevitable really but why had it come so soon? He had hoped for just this small bit of happiness to last longer, but it was a big ask. A request the universe just couldn’t fill. They had seen how horrible he was, and they were leaving. That was okay… He wasn’t angry. At least they were honest. At the very least they were safe. It hurt. It  _ hurt. It hurt. _

Tears, fat and hot and heavy, fell down his face. His eyes stung, sharp and dry, yet they poured like leaky faucets. When had he started crying? Why couldn’t he stop? His eyes were tired, his head hurt as though being beaten with a jackhammer. The tears kept coming. The void was filling with tears, and soon he was up to his nose in water, but it still didn’t stop. There was sharp pains all over, and as dark blood turned the salty ocean wine red, the memories grew louder, and  _ louder _ .

“Freak!”

“Monster!”

“Demon!” 

“You can’t do anything right!”

“You killed him!”

The horrible sea rose over his head, and the world went the colour of pomegranate. The tears kept coming, even underwater. He held his breath as long as he could, but it was a losing battle as the water only rose higher. Bubbles streamed up from his mouth as his lungs filled with the water thick as oil, he was dying. It was almost over.

“HARRISON!” 

His eyes snapped open, and he sprang away from the source of the two loud voices that had woken him up. His breath came in gasps, sharp and still trying to remember that ,yes, that was how breathing worked. In, out, in, out, slowly, count to 7 on each breath. Good, right, alive. He was alive and breathing. The dream was fading even as he sat there, tucked into the corner. He focused on what he could feel, the blankets tangled at his waist, the mattress underneath him,the rough log walls against his back. Then on what he could hear, his own breathing, the rustle of fabric, the chirping of crickets outside. Only then, after he had his bearings, did Harrison open his eyes. 

Sitting on the edge of the bed, watching him with wide and concerned eyes were Nerris and Preston. They looked so caring, so worried for him, so  _ different _ from what he’d heard in the dream. He couldn’t take it, the residual panic ebbed away slowly, leaving him tired and relieved and shaky, and completely unbidden, his eyes welled up. His face had already felt sticky upon waking up, and now fresh tears carved their way down pre-traced trails. He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to stop the flow and panicked when, just as in the dream, he couldn’t force them to stop. 

The mattress sank on either side of him as Preston and Nerris moved to sit at his sides. Embarrassed, Harrison tucked his head behind his knees. He probably looked like such a crybaby. It was just a bad dream, no self respecting magician should be reduced to tears over a _ bad dream _ . His head hurt like hell, an intense pressure against his temples, pinching behind his eyes, slamming his brain against his skull. As he choked back the sobs that threatened to rip his throat open, trying to preserve the tiniest shred of dignity, he found himself unexpectedly pulled onto someone’s lap. Two pairs of arms wrapped around him from the front and back, and he looked up in surprise. 

It was Preston who’d pulled him close, and Nerris who hugged them both as tight as she could. Preston was carding his fingers through Harrison’s hair, gently tugging through knots in a relaxing way. He could hear both Preston and Nerris’ heartbeats all around. Not loud, just barely noticeable background noise. Nerris played with his fingers, rubbing circles into the back of his hand with her thumb. They didn’t care that he’d been weak, that he’d been crying, that he’d been afraid. It felt warm there, surrounded by those who loved him.

“You were crying and shouting in your sleep,” Nerris murmured in his ear, not loud enough to disturb the calm and peaceful aura, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Harrison sniffled, taking a deep but shaky breath, they deserved to know. He opened his mouth, and words spilled with surprising ease. “It was a nightmare, I was all alone and… I-I could hear… every horrible thing people have ever said about me. They, they called me a monster and a demon and a freak and I know I deserved everything they said, but-”

“Now you just STOP THAT this instant.” Preston huffed, tipping Harrison’s chin up so they were looking eachother in the eyes. “None of those things are true at all!” 

“But I-”

“But nothing!” It was Nerris who stopped him that time. She pressed closer, holding him tighter, “You’re not a demon, or a freak,  _ or _ a monster! You’re you, and others might be awful, but we  _ love you _ . Nothing’s gonna change that.” 

He squeezed his eyes shut, the phantom voices from his dream still lingering. But even as they clung, they were shoved away. _ Nothing’s gonna change that _ . A warm thought, a single candle amidst a whirling storm of panic. He cuddled closer to Preston’s chest, Nerris still holding them both tight and close. His breaths began to ease until he was no longer gasping for air every thirty seconds. Tears still fell, but not as fast, and the headache was fading. He was so tired…

“Would you mind staying?” Harrison hated how  _ small _ his voice sounded asking that, like some little kid afraid of the monsters in the closet. The answer he got wasn’t verbal, instead, Preston and Nerris shifted in the bed, tugging him down with them before pulling the blankets over them all. They both snuggled closer to him, their presences warm and comforting in the dark room. With the crickets chirping and wind rustling the trees outside, and his lovers’ heartbeats as his lullabye, he slipped into blessedly dreamless sleep.


End file.
